When i was 13 and could setup debian, apache with cgi and perl, i thought to myself "what good is knowing how to setup stuff when you don't have any idea how to work with it", so i started coding websites and shell-scripts.

When i was 16 and had to choose a career for my apprenticeship, i thought "what good is coding when you don't know enough about the hardware you work with". That's when i did my apprenticeship as a system engineer (mainly unix).